Here’s the response of Dafydd Trystan, Plaid Cymru candidate in the constituency of Caerdydd Penarth, to the email about Welsh-medium education. The response was received on 28 April 2026.
Please note that this is our translation of his response into English. The original message is available (Cymraeg).
Thank you very much for your message. It will not surprise you to understand that I support these calls very much.
I wrote to Sarah Merry as part of the consultation, and I include the full letter to her below,
Regards to you,
Dafydd
The response includes a copy of a letter to Coun Sarah Merry, the Cabinet Member for Education at Cardiff Council. Here is our translation into English.
Dear Councilor Merry
Welsh-medium Secondary Education in Cardiff
I am writing to you in response to the current consultation on the future of Secondary Education in the capital.
I do so following a lifetime of campaigning and action in the field of Welsh-medium education and as you know as one of those hoping to represent the Cardiff Ffynnon Taf constituency in Senedd Cymru in May.
Over the years I have:
- Working for almost 20 years as Registrar of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol developing Higher and Further Education in Wales
- Campaigning for the expansion of Welsh-medium Education here in the capital and beyond
- Founding and Chairing Ysgol Hamadryad – a highly successful community Welsh-medium primary school in Cardiff
- And acting as trustee and National Secretary of the Glyndwr Fund for Welsh-medium Schools – a charity that supports Welsh-medium schools and nursery groups.
I present my comments as an individual drawing on all these experiences.
At its core, the consultation is based on a historic failure – Cardiff Council’s failure to plan long-term for the development of Welsh-medium secondary education in the capital. When considering the growth in Welsh-medium education there should have been full and effective planning for 4 secondary schools in the capital for a while; which completely logically serve the South, East, North and West of the capital.
I saw evidence of the lack of planning at a simple level in my work as a school governor. It was said that less than 30 pupils would come to Ysgol Hamadryad annually. I was of a different opinion, and that was based on experience and evidence – when building an attractive Welsh-language community provision the numbers increase significantly; and so it was and around 60 pupils annually now choose Ysgol Hamadryad.
There is therefore an urgent need to plan for the future in advance and as part of that planning to put a capital investment program in place for the three current schools – specifically including Ysgol Bro Edern. The lack of investment in the resources of the capital’s Welsh-language comprehensive schools over the past decade is deplorable and that situation must be restored immediately.
Cardiff therefore needs four Welsh-medium secondary schools.
That means maintaining a secondary school in the east, Ysgol Bro Edern – and ensuring that the site of that school receives full and suitable investment in the coming years to upgrade the site; and that appropriate temporary arrangements are made as necessary while that work progresses.
It also means starting the process of establishing a Welsh secondary school in the south in advance (that can be on the basis of a 3-18 school of course). Welsh-medium education is growing very strongly in south Cardiff – partly as a result of the work that I, and many other educators, have been part of. There is currently a danger that the most disadvantaged communities, as well as some of the capital’s most multi-lingual multi-ethnic communities, are deprived of Welsh-medium secondary education – due to deficiencies in suitable planning by Cardiff Council.
I therefore beg you to move forward following this consultation to:
- Invest appropriately to upgrade Ysgol Bro Edern’s facilities
- Start work immediately to open a new Welsh-medium Secondary for south Cardiff
I also understand that over 300 from Ysgol Bro Edern (and the schools that feed the school) have written to you as part of the consultation and am very pleased to also see a powerful campaign in South Cardiff to ensure Welsh-medium education for all. The voices of the people of Cardiff are clear on these issues – the time has come for the Council to respond,
Yours sincerely
Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies